Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-05-05


ufacture OF wares, in the construction of build
lngs, or i'll the prosecution OF any kind of enter
prise, he has in fact formed an association of
labor. The efforts of the men employed are as
sociateG in the accomplishment of any desired
result and it is out of the result of such effort
that allthe wages and all the premium to the
employer are to be produced. The employers
OF labor are the greatest benefactors to man
kind. They promote industry they foster a
spirit OF enterprise they conceive all the great
plans to which the possibilities of civilization
invite them; and the association of laboring
men into cooperative relation, which in large
measure can take the place of the employer
class, must therefore ofneeessity be ennobling
ITS PRoIrABLENEss THE ONLY GUARANTY OF
-H EMPLOYMENT.
" There is mlischievous belief among labor
ing people that enterprises with large backing
of capital offer a better guaranty of employ
ment. This is not true. The only guaranty of
employment is its proftableness. Capital can
not afford continued employment to labor at d
loss. Unless the product OF the labor yields
sufficient return out of which wages may be
paid, and the enterprise and skill of the en-
ployer properly rewarded, and the use of the
~~f fNeA eiSo ASNulbCu, tiC SHttipIieC
will of necessity be abandoned In short. CO.
operative associations for the prosecution Of
any undertaking stand in exactly the same re-
lation-possess precisely the same chances of
success, If the effort is ntelligently directed,
as do tho same kind of enterprises projected by
individuals, and sustained by capital. AS be-
tween the two great plans the cooperation of
labor, or the employment of labor by itself, and
the hiring of labor for wages, or employment
of labor by enterprise, intelligence and capital,
the latter has no advantage over the former in
the way of a guaranty as against loss The
product OF labor alone insures its employment,
because employment of labor cam T. continue
beyond the point at which 10 is profitable.
LABOR PRODUCES ALL ITS WAGES AND THE MAR
GIN OF PROFIT, TOO.
'In the aggregate, labor produces all the money
paid back to it in wages. aud all the margin of
profit which inures to the employer. II is pre-
eminently right and just that the employers Of
labor and capital employed in producing
activity should be rewarded. Labor owes
continuing debt of gratitude to the enterprise
and intelligence of the employer class. The
| thought, attention intelligence and skill neces-
sary to originate profitable labor is in fact a
stptIutc department VI Hu1Ddn ACTIVITY. IN
past times when labor was less intelligent than
now, when the opportunities for education
| among workingmen were more restricted and
limited than at present, an intelligent employer
class originating and directing labor was.in-
dispepsable. What believe is that the time
has come when the laboriug men can perform
for themselves the Office of becoming their own
employers; that the employer class is less indis-
pensible in the modern organization of ndustries
because the laooring men them selves possess
sufficient intelligence to organize iuto co-opera-
tive relation and enjoy the entire benefits of
their own labor.
WHOEVER Is COMPETENT To EMPLOY HIMSELF
RENDERS SERVICE To CAPITAL.
Whenever labor is sufficiently intelli-
gent to do this, it should not wait patiently
for its own employment by capital and
enterprise, because whoever is competent to
furnish himself employment, and thereby re-
ceive the full result of his own effort and hires
out his time, Is thereby rendering a voluntary
seryitude to capital; and every man possessed
of industrial capacity is in possession of capital,
for it is out of that industrial capacity that capi
tai is sustained in activity. Sufficient product
i've capacity may be associated for the prosecu-
ton of almost any enterprise, however great it.
magnitude, because as we have already seen.
the employment of labor by capital is in sense
a form of associating labor in the prosecution
OF undertakings, the difference being that vol
untary association of labor into cooperative
relation secures to itself both the wages and the
premium which, under the other form of indus
trial organization, would be paid to the enter
prise directing it and to the capital giving il
employment. Capital appears to have an as
cendancy over labor, and so long as our indus
tries are organized upon the divisions of en-
ployer and employe SO long will capital retain
that relation, but associated labor would at
once become its own master.
THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH FOLLOWS THE
LAW OF ITS CREATION.
''The political economists and the communists
have much to say concerning the distribution of
wealth. They are constantly declaring tha.
while our country presen the spectacle of
government wherein there is an equal distribu-
tion of political power there is great disparity
of condition with reference to the possession of
wealth. Many writers upon the science of polit-
ical economy have declared that it is the duty of
a nation first to encourage the creation of
wealth; and second, to direct and control its
distribution. All such theories are delusive
The production of wealth is the result of agree
ment between labor and capital, between en-
p,oyer and employed. Its distribution, there
fore, will follow the law OF its creation or great
injustice viii be done. The individual who
comes to you claiming that because you have
more than himself You should divide part of it
with him, is clsiming percentage in your
manhood, a share in your productive capacity.
He is denying to you the rightto produce, either
with your own labor, as you have right to do or
through the employment of the labor of Others
which you have an equal right to do, more than u
bare subsistence foryourselE The eonly distribu-
ton of wealth which is the product OF labor
which will te honest, will come through more
equal distribution of the productive capacity of
men. AMI the cooperative principle leads di-
rec ~ to this consummation.
FOLLY OF LEGISLATIVE ATTEMPTS TO FoRcIBIY
DISTRIBUTE WEALTH.
"All legislative experiments in the way of
making forcibe distribution OF the wealth pro-
aueed in any country have failed Their first
effect has been to destroy wealth, to destroy
productive industries. to paralyze enterprise.
and to infict upon labor the greatest calamties
it has ever encountered. So long as labor, which
is sufficiently Intelligent to originate its own
employment, consents to voluntary seryitude
of paying premium to those who do originate
is employments, So long viii the many remain
comparatively poor. AS at present organized,
the industries of the world are under the direc-
ton of employers. man may possess industry
and productive capacity and skill, but he must
first make an agreement with an employer be-
fore he can make these qualities valuable to
himself. When the Lord of the Vineyard ut the
eleventh hour of the day found the idlerS in the
market place and questioned them concerning
the reason of their idleness, the reply was ::
Because no man hath hired US They were
waiting, just as very large percentage of the
laboring world has waited, for some one else to
open avenues of employment. But aggregated
into cooperative relation, intelligent, educated
labor possesses the capacity for the accomplish
ment OF any undertaking or enterprise and need
not wait for an individual called an employer to
associate its effort, and direct and control the
indust- y out of which it earns wages and pays
premium to capital.
LABOR SHOULD NOT WAIT TO BE HIRED, But, BY
COOPERATION, HIRE ITSELF
" Under the present organization of our
industrial system, it is idle to say that
that the men in the narket-place could have
found something to do. 1t is equally idle to